Organic Design Series-Drawer Handles

Here Are Some Drawer Handle Designs That Are Good Examples of Organic Design

Today, organic design, i.e. design that is not based on total geometry, but rather curves is popular, it is popular because such designs are usually soft and edge free, and they look like, what we we would normally find in nature, thus they are not alien in their nature, unlike the geometric works.In this article, I&#039;m presenting you some of the drawer handle designs made by OMC Design Studios, the common element in all handles displayed here are the usage of vectors that enable the handles designs to be made easier without actually drawing a full polygonal model.During the organic design process of drawer handles, the first thing we have is a 3d vectoral drawing that acts as the cage, the designs are smoothed with a method called sub-patching, which makes them look soft and edge free, but we always have the opportunity to include some edgy feeling by adding sharpness and details to the 3d model.The advantage of organic design based on subpatches i.e. vectors is that, it allows variations to be made easier, this is of course could also be a pitfall as you would sometimes spends hours on trying to find the correct look and feel.If you had ever worked with ceramics, that you will understand better; the organic design process is more or less like playing with the clay, the material is limited, and you can extend, pull, push, squeeze it to arrive at a certain shape.Of course using the computer, we can have good amount of symmetry and mathematical perfection that we would normally lack if we were to make the handles with the clay, but, without the computer, these drawer handles are possible to be made using just clay, thus with this method, you would also have a prototype too.The more we introduce details, the less it starts looking natural, such as this drawer handle, that looks more geometric, however the methodology is not different, what we do here is that after we have a very organic design, we twist and bend it further using the complex polygon structure.The drawer handle above is a good example, that looks almost geometrically designed, however the each of small details and the handle itself is based on organic design principles, with higher details.The Lovers of the Heart is a good example of how organic design looks natural and elegant. The resulting designs could usually be cast into a mold, but some very complex shapes are also possible and there are many other techniques such as lathing, cnc working etc are possible for their realization.I gave the ceramic example with a reason, perhaps you would not know, but in the past, to design the cars, they first build a clay model, this particular drawer handle design was inspired by old cars, it is hard to imagine that only 12 points in 3d space, correctly positioned could give this shape.Therefore, I could say that the beauty of the organic design indeed is at the core design principle; organic design is co-designing complex shapes based on small inputs. Let me go deeper on this though: As I said a few number of points can lead to creation of millions of different designs as we could literally position themselves anywhere in 3d space.But that is not our case here, the points are not randomly positioned, we have a model, that helps us to create the handles; first we know that a handle should be around 160mm in length as this is the industry standard - best practice, furthermore, we know the ergonomic properties of hand, how it could pull, the dimensions of a finger, and size of man.Thus, these set of information are embedded into our thinking when we come up with the drawer handle designs. I said, it is co created, because we only move several limited number of points in space, but the surface is instantly calculated by the computer, at this step, what you could design is based on your foresight and creativity.Thus by spending enough amount of time, you would be guessing correctly, how the surfaces would be designed by the computer, given you position the points correctly, at master level, and an idea in mind, you could design a single drawer handle within two-three minutes, but it takes years to get there.I had the opportunity to observe Kenji Kato&#039;s work, he was a master ceramic designer who would make a single cup within two-three seconds using the lathing wheel. His cups were perfect, yet the same day, I remember students spending hours and days to make a single one of them. So I must say the process is very precise, but one must know where to touch and how to change.This is another example that looks geometric, but it is just another example of geometric design that uses slightly more number of points to create a level of sharpness and precision.This handle design indeed has less information in its 3d data file than the previous one, but looks more complicated due to the nature of the process; simple set of information leading a chaotic and complex structure, and within a controlled environment and experience we could now how they would look like.The process of organic design is like parametric design, without the parameters being numbers, but rather positions of points in three-dimensional space. Exerpt:Today, organic design, i.e. design that is not based on total geometry, but rather curves is popular, it is popular because such designs are usually soft and edge free, and they look like, what we we would normally find in nature, thus they are not alien in their nature, unlike the geometric works.In this article, I&#039;m presenting you some of the drawer handle designs made by OMC Design Studios, the common element in all handles displayed here are the usage of vectors that enable the handles ..